Madrid - The German firm specialized in the commercialization of sportswear and sports articles Adidas, filed a lawsuit against the New York fashion firm Thom Browne last week before the Federal District Court of the New York district for violation of brand image, after considering that the American fashion house consciously imitates on its garments one of the most distinctive elements of the firm: the three stripes that, stand out from Adidas, have been using as their own part of their designs in different combinations and patterns indiscriminately since 1950. techwadia
As they wielded in their interpellation before the
Federal Court of New York from the multinational sports fashion company, Thom
Browne, who on his models applies designs in forms of patterns that go from two
to four stripes as details, does nothing but “ imitate the Adidas Three Stripes
brand in a way that is likely to cause consumer confusion and mislead the
public as to the origin, endorsement, association or affiliation ”between the
two trademarks.
Request for the seizure and destruction of all Thom
Browne garments that infringe Adidas trademark rights
Regarding this series of interpretations, from Adidas
they maintain that the actions carried out by the American firm on the
different designs of its sportswear and casual fashion lines, including all
kinds of sports pants and decorated sweatshirts with different patterns of
horizontal and / or vertical stripes, infringe your rights as a registered
trademark under the provisions of the Lanham Act of 1946, the federal law
responsible for ensuring the protection of trademarks, as well as what is
contemplated by different legal regulations related to the state of New
York. For what they argue, as a strong point of demand, where Adidas
has a long history of models in which it has made use of the three stripes as
distinctive iconography of its designs since the 1950s in relation to footwear,
and a decade later on garments and clothing designs. Three stripes that in
the same way evolved adding a greater number of stripes and motifs as of 1994,
in what they would place as the precedent to the variations, beyond the number
three, of which the designs of Thom Browne show.
As an action to resolve the conflict, the German
multinational asks the Court to prevent the New York firm from selling clothing
with references to its stripes, and to order the company to "deliver for
seizure and destruction" of all clothing and the footwear whose designs
from Adidas are in disagreement.

Thom Browne defends himself: “they gave us their
consent greater than a decade ago”
Founded in New York via the American fashion designer
Thom Browne around 2001, considering that then, and thanks to the fulfillment
of the creations of the creative, a normal collaborator of favor firms consisting
of Brooks Brother or Moncler, the New York style company has been reaching
carve out a growing area of interest within the style-luxury zone. So plenty
so, as to arouse the interest of the Italian Ermenegildo Zegna Group, which, in
a quest to redefine its audiences determined to collect eighty five percentage
of the brand during the beyond 12 months of 2018. Operation regardless of which
each groups have remained fully separate groups, in the case of Browne beneath
the route of the identical control group that had been using their increase,
with Thom Browne main the innovative place,
Bazan, who landed within the New York company in May 2016
from Alexander Wang and thanks to whose address the fashion residence has
controlled to shoot its turnover to two hundred million bucks, became exactly
in rate of responding to the lawsuit filed by using Adidas. Multinational with
which, he emphasizes, they had been protecting meetings for greater than a
decade so that you can avoid a scenario such as the one provided.
"We are satisfied that we are proper and we're
confident of the a hit outcome of the case, when you consider that we have
acted honorably for the duration of this time," stated Bazan in a
declaration to the US media Wwd. Exposition utilized by the CEO of Thom Browne
to factor out that “what's essential is to remember the fact that Adidas gave
its consent to Thom Browne greater than 10 years in the past, and actually it
changed into the only that recommended to Thom that he add a extra stripe, to attain
four o'clock, on the sleeves or on the pants ”, some thing that would be“ Ok
for Adidas ”. "Since that time, greater than a decade in the past, Adidas
in no way gave Thom Browne any other word."During all this time, “it is
more than reasonable to think that Adidas, having expressed a first concern
about those three stripes that Thom Browne raised, has been in charge of
closely following everything that Thom has been doing since then”, since
“Adidas Like all good brands, it monitors the market ”. But nevertheless
it has not been “until now, with Thom finally achieving some real success”, we
must not forget that, among others, he managed to dress Michele Obama during
the ceremony of the second investiture of former US President Barack Obama,
when “Adidas he has decided to show a completely different behavior ”.
"We cannot guess why Adidas is acting in this way at
the moment," adds Bazan, in what the European company would justify in the
approach of the American company towards a greater development of its sports
and casual lines, through collections such as that capsule. solidarity that
they launched last October 2020 together with FC Barcelona, at a time when
athleisure aesthetics is also more trending than ever. In any case, and
while waiting to present its own arguments before the Court, Bazan emphasizes
that "there have been continuous discussions to try to resolve the issue
amicably, but Adidas, without prior notice, withdrew from the negotiations and
filed this lawsuit" .
"In perspective, it seems to us that Adidas is
trying to act like Goliath against us, trying to present a case that, in our
opinion, has little foundation", since the two firms are "markedly
different" due, among other issues, to the positioning of their
products. "They have given their consent for 12 years and now they
are trying to change their mind", and "the court will not allow
it" and "neither will the consumers", adds Bazan, for whom the
lawsuit is nothing more than "an attempt to violate the law" in his
favor by Adidas.